This doesn't make any sense. Was Rodney capable of this kind of play the past few years? And he just sandbagged it until his contract year? He is the go to guy late in the game now and Cheeks has a lot of confidence in him. Strange. He was given every possible opportunity in the past and blew it.

Stuckey's issue wasn't that he didn't play hard, it was that he played dumb.

I am not sure what benefit there is to play dumb in non-contract years and then smart in a contract year.

I haven't been a fan of Stuckey for some time, but the way he is attacking and succeeding is something to watch. Again, he's a legit 6th man candidate, it's like watching someone on the Pistons who is actually playing at a very high level.

Cheeks has put Stuckey in the spot he needs to be. 26 minutes of GO GO GO. Due to his body type (and playing style), he couldn't do 35-40 minutes of that in the past, or in a leadership role. I like what he's been doing, it's just too bad it took so long for him to find his groove...Hopefully we don't over pay for him, or someone does, and he continues to succeed.

After last nights stellar performance against the Milwaukee Sucks where Rodney shot 7/11 his stats are incredible. A hair under 16ppg, 49% from thee floor and 40.9% from the arc. WOW! If he keeps this up we won't have any cap space this summer.

This year so far, Rodney has improved his shooting dramatically. A big jump in every category except FT, an area where he was really good to begin with. But, it goes beyond that. Take a look at this table:

First off, he is colliding as much as he used to. So, there's no change there. But his ball handling and passing turnovers are the lowest they have been for his career. Half of what they were last year.

Then 72% of his shots are jump shot, this is the highest it has been in his career. Up 8% from last year while also improving the EFG%. His jump shot EFG% has not improved that much, but he's taking more outside shots.

His close range shots are at 28%, the lowest it has been in his career. But his EFG% is the highest it has been in his career.

Here's where it gets really interesting; in both categories the percentage of his shots that are assisted are way up. Highest it has ever been in his career. First time ever in his career, more than half his shots are assisted.

Most important, and probably most telling of all, he is not getting blocked nowhere nearly as much. His close range blocked shots have never been this low (only 4% this year).

So, he's thriving because:

he doesn't have to create all by himself all the time

he's protecting the ball really well

he's limiting his turnovers

he is showing better shot selection

All in all, this is the first time he has shown improvements in his game that are both noticeable in his play and supported by stats. If he keeps this up, he'll officially have entered his second year in the league.

Great summary. It's striking that his venturing into the paint has dropped from 42% to 28%. So, now, when he does go in there, he's not forcing it and not getting blocked. The lack of stuffs is almost exactly the cause for his higher FG% it would seem.

The mid ranger is the key to keeping the defense honest with him and he's a threat from there. We also have 2 exceptional big man passers right now, so I'm wondering if a lot of the in-the-paint activity is cuts where they give him a nice feed. Would have to look at synergy for that.

Overall, he is generating 1.04 points per possession (defined as when he shoots, gets fouled, or turns it over). On defense, he is giving up 0.98 points per possession.

The big difference that really stands out to me is his ability to get to the line. He draws fouls on 8.5% of his possessions while he fouls his counterpart on 1.2% of theirs!

Surprisingly, he is extremely efficient so far this year on spot up jump shots, thanks to his 9-20 shooting from 3-point land. The deep shooting is limited sample, so his efficiency will likely revert more to his average... hopefully not though. He's also scoring well on the break and drawing a ton of contact-- getting fouled in 1 out of 5 attempts.

My questions are: how does his ppp compare to others on the team? How does his P&R success compare to other guards on the team? Do any other guards get fouled as much as him? These are answerable, but will take some browsing.

Answers: Stuckey's P&R performance compares favorably. His 0.85 ppp is the same as Jennings' and better than Bynum (0.58), Billups (0.50), and Siva (0.0). Pope's 0.89 is slightly better, but with way fewer occurrences.

Fouls. Stuckey draws at an 8.5% overall rate and fouls at a 1.2% rate. There are 2 guards that draw fouls at a higher rate- Bynum: 11.1% and Singler: 8.9%.

Since Drummond plays a position where everybody has high FG%'s, it is fairly incredible that he is holding opposing centers to 0.73 points per possession. Combine that with his near league leading offensive efficiency (still 15th, even after factoring in FTs).

Keep in mind though that these stats do not measure assists. So, a guard may be down on the efficiency scale here and still be a net positive on the court if he's setting up others (Jennings probably fits into that category and makes up for his putrid ppp differential).

With Singler, he is shooting lousily this year from 3-point range, yet his efficiency is still sky high. Surprisingly, he's drawing fouls like crazy and holding his man in check better than anyone besides Drummond. It's no wonder why he's been so valuable so far.

But do we re-sign Stuckey this summer? That is the $34M question! Can he continue this level of productivity, efficiency and reliability over the next four years? I also think for this team to win we need an upgrade over Kyle Singler.